Interrupting Politely: Robot-Initiated Interruptions and Politeness Strategies in Home Healthcare Interactions With Older Adults

As healthcare interactive agents increasingly support older adults at home, socially appropriate interaction is critical for trust and acceptance. Health-related prompts may need to interrupt ongoing activities, but whether politeness can reduce their social cost remains unclear. This web-based video experiment examined how older adults perceive a robotic healthcare agent delivering prompts with or without interruption using four politeness strategies: direct, positive, negative, and indirect. A total of 275 adults aged 65+ viewed 21 animated home scenarios and rated distrust, trust, and intention to use. Linear mixed models showed that interruptions increased distrust and reduced trust and intention to use. Direct and positive politeness supported higher trust and intention without interruption but weakened under interruption. Negative politeness proved most resilient, whereas indirect politeness was least effective. These findings inform the design of voice-based health prompts by showing how interruption presence and politeness strategy shape older adults’ evaluations.